come_sailaway | mood in my tomb red moon heavy [OPEN & CLOSED]

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mood in my tomb red moon heavy [OPEN & CLOSED]

Who: Siffleur, Daisy, Jack Bioshock and you
What: Catch-all
Where: Quarters, Tommy Bahamas and Mikabo sushi bar
When: Early November
Warnings: Violence, gore, cannibalism, suicidal ideation, aggressive flirtations & sex

1. Home Sweet Home (cabin - closed to Daisy)

Siffleur goes back to the cabin maybe twice a week at most. It’s where the shower is, which is something he has gotten used to and enjoys. He can keep himself clean, but hot water works out the knots nicely.

Someone else moved in last week. Their scent is less than human, heavy and musky, and it’s taken a great deal of restraint from him not to ruin their things. But this isn’t his place - his place is in the Tommy Bahamas and he’s content to stay there most of the time. So far, he’s been lucky enough to enter the room when the other person isn’t in.

Today, he’s not so lucky, and as he opens the door, he’s hit with an even stronger version of her smell. He grunts to himself and steps inside, closing the door behind him as he finally gets a look at his roommate.

Siffleur pauses and tips his head to the side as he gets a good look at her human shaped form. “Hmm. Shapechanger, werewolf, something else?”

2. Life Is One Long Weekend! (Tommy Bahamas - open)

Outside the Tommy Bahamas is a large posterboard and a sign-up sheet with a pen on a string, and a selection of brightly coloured armbands made from various items within the Tommy Bahamas. Block letters in thick sharpie offer an explanation:

TIKTOK CHALLENGE: SURVIVE 1 HOUR IN TOMMY BAHAMAS
MUST WRITE DOWN NAME AND TIME STARTED AND WEAR ARMBAND TO PARTICIPATE
WINNER GETS TO PET A COUGAR
LOSERS AGREE TO BE EATEN

There’s no sign of Siffleur. He’s somewhere inside, waiting.

((additional rules here))

3. Tommy Bahamas Is for Lovers (Tommy Bahamas - closed to Jack)

Somewhere, over one of the various repeating men’s sections, Siffleur is bedded down in a selection of various throws. It’s comfortable and enclosed up at the top of the shelves, and he’s about to settle into a lull when a somewhat familiar scent comes to him.

It’s the man from the aftermath of the Halloween party. He raises his head, feeling a thrum of excitement. Siffleur slinks out of his hiding spot and makes his way along the tops of the shelves and racks, until he comes across the man.

Siffleur sits and waits, watching him and deciding his best point of attack.

4. greedy little kitty (Mikabo sushi bar - Open)

A regular at the sushi restaurant, Siffleur can be found sitting on a stool at the counter with a scattering of plates in front of him and around him on the floor. As always, he sits in his cougar form, content to paw selections off the belt and lap them up before discarding the plate.

Other entering passengers may get looked at, but not for long. After all, there’s always more sushi to eat. And perhaps most infuriatingly, he’s set up at the first position, so he always gets his first pick of the best sushi. If there’s a piece you want, you might have to speak up first.

5. Wildcard

As always, DM me to discuss.

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Johnny steps in, keeping a nice polite distance despite the reassurance.

"Gamble? What do you mean by that?"

"I mean gambling. The price of admission is their body. If they lose, I am allowed to hunt and eat them. If they win, they can pet me." He sets his paws on the counter, crossed over each other as his eyes watch dishes slowly cycle by. "Then people cannot be angry at me for hunting, since everyone who will be hunted agreed to it. And it should be appealing to participate in, since humans love challenges and bragging about winning."

Give him a moment, he needs to sit with this and see how he feels about it.

"Entirely opt-in? Everyone's aware of the stakes?"

...okay, yes, violent bloodsport. But also, kind of hilarious, especially since death isn't permanent. You lose a day, as Erin phrased it once.

"Huh. That's sort of brilliant."

"Yes. You have to put your name down, and you have to wear an armband. Then you have one hour to escape me inside of the Tommy Bahamas." Siffleur has spent the last few weeks thinking of this. There will people who will still hate it, and many who won't participate, and he still plans to hunt outside of his game - especially if it isn't popular. But some adaption is always better than none.

"Thank you. I have thought long and hard about it, and it's time to test it. I hope it works. I may have to change rules if I have gotten things incorrect." He sits up with interest as some eel goes by and he's quick to paw it off the belt and in front of him, bumping a few empty plates off the counter in the process. He laps up the eel and swallows it. Mmm... "If I'm right, people will want to pet an animal more than they will fear temporary death, and we can both be content."

Johnny grabs a neglected tuna roll.

"You'll definitely get takers. Forgive me for not being one of them; I know I don't stand a chance of besting you, and I owe it to my partners not to die right now."

"It's fine. I will have the challenge open many times in the future. You can participate then, or not at all." It doesn't bother Siffleur that this human doesn't want to be eaten. It's natural to not want to die, even in a place without death. And he can understand having other obligations. "If your partners cannot spare you, then you should not gamble, or you risk having no partners at all. In this place, it seems important to have others you can depend on."

"And who will you depend on, if there comes to be an outroar about you eating people?"

He's mildly curious how good a social network 'literal man-eating large cat' can build.

"No one. I am not human, and I am not tame, and death is not permanent. If that means nothing and my very being is inexcusable, then I have no desire to see friends or allies punished with me."

It's very simple to him in the end. Siffleur has come to accept that humans are hypocritical and that they will always be unfair in their favour. Their desires and impulses are good and justified no matter how much territory they steal or how many animals they eat, but should an animal commit the crime of inconvenience towards a human, their life was always forfeit.

"I am what I am. I have tried now and then to live otherwise, but it chafes and aches. I would rather be seen for what I am, no matter how difficult it makes my life. And I would rather be alone and depend only on myself than see others punished alongside me." He swishes his tail a few times. "But I am not human - not fully. You are. There lies our difference."

Johnny lets out a bit of a laugh. "You might be surprised what I know about trying to live as that which you aren't. How much of a struggle it is to pack all of yourself into a skin created by others' expectations. It's not the same thing, not exactly, but it is similar enough for me to understand."

He looks at the conveyor belt, takes a piece of octopus nigiri.

"Are you familiar with the story of the frog and the scorpion?"

He tips his head for a moment at Johnny. "This is true, even humans struggle with the lives they're told to live. I cannot assume that you have no understanding of this."

"One of Aesop's fables. My mother read them to me when I was a child." He smiles a little, fondly thinking of her as he paws another plate from the belt. "She used to say to me that she was like a scorpion. Stinging was in her nature as well, and she could no more control it than the scorpion."

"And the same is probably true of you, I suppose. Almost makes me wonder if the library has a copy of the fables. I haven't read them since I was young, myself."

He glances over and smiles at Siffleur.

"What's your name?"

"It is, though I have somewhat better control of my stinging." Clearly, because despite his time onboard, he has not actually killed or eaten anyone yet. Some of this was because of the attack from the shewolf, and the injuries she left on him, but it was more than that. Though he missed the hunt, he could not leave this place as easily as others, and so he could not afford to burn out all good will in an instance. And he was not his mother, who had been tormented by her nature in ways that Siffleur was not. "If you cannot find a copy of the book, I remember the ones she told me, and I could write them down."

"I am Siffleur. And you?"

"Johnny Summer. It's a pleasure to meet you. I don't suppose you'd let me have that salmon coming up?"

He's not going to fuss if the giant murdercat denies him, but it feels like it's worth asking.

The salmon looks very good, but Siffleur keeps his paws to himself, letting it roll down the belt to Johnny. "It is good to meet you too, Johnny."

"Before I came here, I had just finished living as a human for nine months. I was ready to go back to the forest and live in quiet for a year or so." Clearly, he didn't get that - not the forest or the quiet. "It would be snowing there by now. I don't miss the cold. But I do miss the small animals."

"I miss birds. The city I'm from is full of pigeons. I used to go out on the twelfth story balcony of my building and watch them while I had my morning cigarette. The barrenness of this world is maddening to me--I can only imagine how it is to you."

He takes the salmon appreciatively.

"It is unsettling. I have been to many places that were hostile to life - cities, tar sands, high on mountains - and none of them were lifeless. Pigeons and crows and rabbits and pets among the cars, magpies and gophers and livestock by the stink of crude, ravens and bighorns and bears high up on the rockfaces. There has always been life, even if it was nothing more than gnats and mosquitoes."

His tail swishes with agitation. This is something he has turned his mind away from for his own sanity's sake, but for a moment, he lets the madness of this dead ship weigh on him. It is oppressive. It is terrifying. It is monstrous.

Then he lets it go. He must. Insanity lingers in such thoughts.

"Gal Friday said that the ship sometimes goes to forests and wild places. I am excited to visit them. I will be nice to live among the trees again, if only for a short while."

"They may disappoint you. The environments the Captain creates mimic wilderness, but I've heard they lack something in practice." He hesitates, a little nervous about admitting his weaknesses in front of a predator. "I don't normally go on the expeditions, but Watson and Cesar have told me about them, when they've gone. And when Cesar's brought back plants to the ship, they've never grown."

His ears actively droop to hear that even the wilderness isn't true wilderness. Siffleur sighs, and he pushes a few of the remaining plates in front of him onto the floor in a fit of ennui. "That's disappointing to hear. Is it truly so difficult for the Captain to make other creatures?"

"Apparently. There's only one that I know of him having made in the past, a single crab. He's also, reportedly, sort of bad at trees. Not that that stops him from trying, but they seem to lack something."

"Hmm." Even more disappointing. Though interesting that the Captain has this ship, and all of them on it, but can't manage to create animals and trees. His tail swishes a few times as he thinks it over. "I see... it's like... humans building zoo enclosures? They try, but there is always something not right. It's because they can't create, only recreate. The two are very different."

"It's very much like that. Like...set pieces, for a play, perhaps. Dioramas. Dollhouses. I heard the beach with the salamander people was different, a real sort of place. But I'm not wholly sure why that was any different from his usual fare. But again, I don't normally go on excursions."

There's a faint air of wistfulness about that.

"Why not?" After all, it's a chance to leave this place. Why wouldn't a person take the opportunity to see somewhere else for a while?

"Agoraphobia. Going out into unfamiliar places is very hard for me. I have panic attacks even trying."

He absolutely expects the big old kitty to find that ridiculous or weak.

"Mmm. My mother could be like that when she was sick. Nowhere felt safe. No one was trustworthy. It's a difficult life to life."

It had been years, but he still vividly remembered the panic and paranoia that would overtake her at times, the way she would hide them away in the hotel rooms or apartments they were staying in, all her flesh trembling and twitching at every shadow and every sound, real or imagined. Only once he was on his own did he realize how little humans noticed or cared, and how much of her terror was caused by her own mind.

"Arriving on the ship must have been painful for you. Once I regained control of my body, I panicked and ran halfway down the ship looking for an escape. Took most of the day to calm myself."

"I holed myself away in my room for a while, after the first muster drill. Now, I'm comfortable in most of the ship, though there's spaces I avoid on principle. But. Yes, it's certainly been an experience."

Is it strange, to find himself warming to a predator that's admitted to hunting and eating people?

...probably.

"I...experienced a time in my own world when I was pretty much held under siege in my own home. Someone threatened to take everything I'd built, everything I loved, away from me if I didn't give him what he wanted. And I feared if I walked out the door, the building wouldn't be there when I returned."

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